


Of honey, poison and attention

by siberianchan



Category: Hiccup Series - Cressida Cowell, How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: Also fluff, And Honey, Gen, and chamomile infusion, disgruntled green little dragons, lotsa lotsa fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-16
Updated: 2016-11-16
Packaged: 2018-08-31 09:05:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8572453
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/siberianchan/pseuds/siberianchan
Summary: Don't ignore your little dragon. He might get bored and develop an overactive imagination. And gorge himself on honey.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LittleAranel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleAranel/gifts).



Title: Of honey, poison and attention

Fandom: How to train your dragon (book series by Cressida Cowell)

Comment: Don't ignore your little dragon. He might get bored and develop an overactive imagination. And gorge himself on honey.

Disclaimer: I do very, very much not own the HTTYD franchise. The books especially belong in their entirety to Cressida Cowell, hear her name and tremble ugh-ugh. I DO however, own the joy I derived from writing this.

 

\---------------

 

 

Hiccup was a smart human, Toothless was very ready to admit. To himself at least, no human – not even Hiccup, _especially_ not Hiccup – would ever hear such treacherous words slip from his forked tongue.

Hiccup was smart. And kind, even though he occasionally tried to be less so and to put his foot down, to raise Toothless up to be a non-spoiled dragon as he claimed.

It never lasted long and that was the main reason Toothless could find his attempts so amusing. Not to mention that these attempts at least meant his attention was undivided where it belonged – meaning Toothless of course.

Right now, though, Hiccup was not trying to discipline him.

In fact, he was not even paying any sort of attention to him. Instead, once again he was outside, doing some weird human stuff that only served to kill off the occasional Viking – and more often than not was the launching point for crazy, crazy shenanigans that had the unfortunate tendency to distract Hiccups attention even further from Toothless.

He hated that. Especially when these events and get-togethers of the tribes meant that he left Toothless in the house and would have company only in form of the other weedy human and the rather obnoxious little girl with her mop of blonde tangles she called hair.

That was not right.

Hiccup was his and Hiccup should focus on him, end of story.

After all, who climbed in his bed, night after night, to keep him company and keep him warm? Who was always with him, doing whatever he asked? (mostly, anyway. Sometimes.) Who entertained him and distracted him from any spells of dark thought and doubt and fear and insecurity that so often befell him? Who reminded him that he was, in fact, a rather good human, someone truly deserving such a magnificent dragon as him? Who, but Toothless?

And what was his reward? Being shoved from Hiccup’s shoulder and onto the table and then being told, “No, Toothless, you can't come to the All-You-Can-Eat-Of-Pickled-Fish competition! No dragons allowed! You understand?” And then he had turned around and walked out and Toothless had been left alone.

And now? What was he to do now, what would he occupy himself with, hm? Just what was Hiccup thinking, leaving him all alone?!

How would he protect himself if someone came barging into the house?! Where would he hide?! Nowhere, that's where and he would be grabbed and abducted and carried off, that's what would happen!

Something moved and stirred against the window frames and the door, startling him.

There they were, he concluded, flapping around before finally settling on a shelf in the kitchen and wriggling his way behind a few clay jars that smelled sharp of spices – Old Wrinkly and Hiccup did a lot of the cooking, since Hiccup's mother was away so often and they both enjoyed their food less dull and one-note than most people around here and being Chiefs family meant that even spices aside of their regular herbs where readily available, despite the expense they meant.

Toothless didn't care too much whether his food was laced with cinnamon or cloves or ginger, but he did not mind it, especially when Hiccup did the cooking – and more especially, when he could snatch some from Hiccup's hand. It always tasted better from Hiccup's hands.

The sharp scents wrapped themselves around Toothless like a blanket, smelling like edible fire, all heat and warmth and bite and caress.

For a moment he was tempted to climb into each and every single of them or to knock them over and take a dive into their contents. It _was_ a very tempting idea, both for the comfort and for the fact that Hiccup would get angry with him and _again,_ that his attention would be where it belonged.

But then again, there were lines not even the most headstrong, wilful little dragon would dare to cross.

Toothless had only one line and he was not really aware that it existed, most of the time. He loved making a mess and destroying things that posed an annoyance to him or were suitable to take out his anger on, be it a big, fancy chair (that had been A LOT of fun to destroy) or some dumb book Hiccup just so happened to consider one of the stupidest things that had ever existed. However, he never attacked Hiccup's possession or things and goods he considered valuable and worthy. Toothless liked Hiccup's attention and happily dealt with him occasionally being mad, but he would most definitely not hurt him that much. Hiccup was good to him after all, so of course Toothless was good to him in return.

Right now, however, Hiccup was not good at all! He was not bad, but leaving Toothless alone here, utterly alone and vulnerable and _terrified_ without his human around to protect him and be strong and brave and fearless and wilful for – no, that was decidedly not very nice of him.

He swished his tail and it clanked against the honey jar, causing the content to stir ever so slightly.

A sweet, rich whiff rose, meeting Toothless' nose and reminding him, that he – aside of being scared – was also pretty hungry, since the argument from before had distracted Toothless too much to remember eating his breakfast.

He sniffed. Honey, warm, rich, delicious, wonderful honey, which Toothless rarely ever got to eat and only as a special treat (usually after they had survived yet another bunch of crazy shenanigans and arrived safely at home needed to celebrate the fact). It probably was for the best too, considering Toothless occasional bouts of gluttony.

The lid of the jar had slightly slid aside and Toothless peeked inside.

There was a soft gleam, tempting him, tickling his eye as much as the scent teased his nose.

Again something rumbled against the door and the windows.

Oh, they were coming, they were coming for him and they would steal him away and Hiccup would come home, but he would find his home empty and devoid of a little, green dragon, because in his absence Toothless had been stolen away and then he would regret telling him to stay here, oh he would so regret it!

And Toothless would be taken somewhere far away and icky and nasty, where there would be no Hiccup and no honey, never ever again.

Maybe he should take a mouthful, just one last taste so he would at least remember it.

His nose was in the honey jar quicker than Hiccup's could ever be in any new book he'd come across.

Such warmth, such comfort, such sheer delight. Toothless shut his nostrils tight, opened his mouth and let the thick, gooey goodness flow over his tongue, before he finally lifted his head again, his pink, forked tongue ran over his snout, catching the honey, that was dripping from his long nose.

This was so good, so nice, so filling and warming.

Hiccup always had to sneak some honey away whenever he wanted to feed Toothless some, considering how his father felt about _spoiling_ dragons.

Sometimes he was caught and then had to sit though yet another droning speech about proper chiefly behaviour, and how he was not displaying this.

Hiccup, Toothless mused, was really doing quite a lot for him, one of the reasons Toothless had grown so actually really fond of him in a relatively short time. Not that he would ever tell him that fact, oh no, no, no, no, not ever! But well, he had to admit, he had a tendency to show his affection and very clearly so. He pooped and peed in the helmets of people that were up to no good. He warned Hiccup against enemies (even though Hiccup wasn't always grateful for that). He kept him warm at night. He was as much companion to Hiccup as Hiccup was to him.

Oh, he would so miss that!

And Hiccup, Hiccup surely would miss him too...

But that would only serve him right for leaving Toothless behind.

Again he put his snout into the pot, letting the honey flow into his mouth.

It tasted lovely, so much of summer and sun and all things good and a warm blanket on his back and Hiccup carrying him when he was half-asleep.

But something was missing.

Toothless licked his snout clean before once again diving in and repeating the procedure, but it wasn't the same, not at all and now he would not know what was missing when they would come and take him and carry him off. And he would never see Hiccup again and he would never find out, why the honey tasted so different now and so much less like honey than usual.

Still, it tasted good enough for him to again dip his snout into it.

 

“Toothless? Toothless, I'm back!”

Oh, the words. The voice. The _noise_!

“Where are you?”

Urgh, oh, he...

Nobody had come to take him after all. But oh, oh, he was poisoned, for sure, the honey had been poisoned and now he would die, he would die here!

He groaned, which very hopefully would be enough for Hiccup to find him.

“Toothless?”

The honey pot was taken away and light bit in Toothless' eyes.

Again, he groaned and then Hiccup's face loomed over him. “Hey, Toothless – hey, what's wrong, hm?”

He reached and Toothless was scooped up.

“P-p-p-poison,” he managed to wheeze out, “honey i-i-i-is poisoned!”

Hiccup blinked and his gaze wandered around.

Toothless felt that he was shifted around on Hiccups arm and then he heard the clanking of the jar.

“Oh... Toothless, don't tell me you ate all of it?”

“W-w-w-was poisoned!” Toothless whined, “was p-p-p-poisoned and p-p-poor Toothless now will d-d-die!”

Hiccup glanced into the honey pot. Then he shook his head and Toothless felt him petting his back. That was nice.

He almost could ignore his aching tummy, so nice was it.

“It's alright. I think I know the proper antidote for honey poisoning,” Hiccup suggested, while carefully stuffing the little dragon down his shirt and then moving about.

Toothless heard and felt him moving and working, but he was too miserable to pay much attention to it.

Then Hiccup walked up the stairs and then the route that led to his bedroom and then he was sitting down and peeled the dragon out of his shirt again.

“Poisoned, hm?” he asked, running his hand over Toothless' side, so the little dragon rolled on his back.

“B-b-b-bad poison,” he complained. “s-s-s-so bad... poor T-t-t-toothless...”

“Yeah, poor Toothless,” Hiccup sighed. “Better you drink your antidote then, hm?”

“Y-y-yeah...”

“No complaining? Promise?”

“P-p-promise...” Toothless didn't even really care any more. Between his tummy ache and nausea and Hiccups attention to distract him from this overabundance of misery, there was very little else he could focus on.

So when the clay mug touched his snout, he obediently took a sip.

Obedience usually didn't pay off for Toothless, not if you asked him. So he had kind off sworn off the habit a long time ago and only occasionally indulged, when he felt like being extra nice to Hiccup.

Or when he didn't care.

Didn't pay off in any case. Maybe he should swear off this whole obedience thing completely.

“C-c-chamomile”, he hissed and he was very, very tempted to spit the infusion out and straight into Hiccups face.

“No complaining”, Hiccup reminded him. “You promised.” And he let another bit run down Toothless' throat. In Hiccup-terms this translated pretty much to _I don't care whether you like it or not, I for whatever reason deem this necessary and beneficial for you and will go through with it._ He rarely ever was in that mood, but Toothless had already found out that he better accepted his fate when he was.

Interestingly, the chamomile infusion didn't taste nearly as horrible as usual when he was forced to drink some. Maybe it was the fact that Hiccup had started to rub his belly and _ooooh_ , that was _really_ nice.

Hiccup smiled. “You know, that's why you don't get so much honey to begin with. You know, it is a bit poisonous, since bees make it and bees have poison.”

“N-n-not much,” Toothless tried to argue. “Toothless has not much trouble with s-s-stings.”

“But the poison collects in the honey,” Hiccup said and quickly turned his head as he placed the mug on his night stand. “And what's in a whole jar of honey is really dangerous to a young dragon your size. You were cutting it close, really, really close.” His voice was shaking a little, probably from the terror of almost loosing him to this poison, Toothless was sure.

“I know you like honey, but see why I don't give you so much?”

“Hm.... m-m-maybe is b-b-b-better,” Toothless mumbled, eyelids growing heavy.

Warmth was spreading through him and along with the generous application of tummy rubs it had already helped considerably easing his suffering.

He didn't even protest when Hiccup slipped him another sip of the chamomile infusion. Right now, it really didn't taste that bad.

Right now it tasted somewhat reminiscent of small, treasured, measured scoops of honey.

 

**Author's Note:**

> So, LittleAranel was kinda, sorta upset by a certain thing I wrote. No idea whether it was about the bitten off limbs or my writing, but anyways, she declared my evil deed only forgiven if I wrote two pieces of fluff at least.  
> ... this would be piece #2.  
> ... so everything's forgiven now? 
> 
> On a related note, I am taking comissions and prompts, so... if you like my writing and want me to write more, just contact me here or on tumblr?


End file.
